When his younger brother loses interest in online dating, hot, bearded, bartender extraordinaire, Joe Collins, only intends to log into his account and shut it down. Until he reads about her.
Alex Parks is funny, friendly, and pretty much everything he's been looking for in a woman. And in no time at all they're emailing up a storm, telling each other their deepest darkest secrets... apart from the one that really matters.
And when it comes to love, serving it straight up works better than with a twist.

REVIEW

I’ll be honest, I was a little disappointed when I found out that the next book in the Dive Bar series was going to be Joe’s story. We didn’t learn a lot about Joe in Dirty, but after diving into the first chapter I couldn’t wait to see where this one was going to go!

Alexandra Park doesn’t take risks in life. She’s calculated, very private and lacks the confidence that she should have. But she decided to take the chance on meeting the handsome and successful businessman that she met over the internet. Her and Eric have made not only a connection, but have become really good friends. Imagine her surprise when she walks into Dive Bar only for Eric to not recognize her or even acknowledge that they know each other.

Yeah, I got that right, ERIC. As in Joe’s brother Eric. But this is Joe’s story…. Just wait, I’m getting there. It doesn’t take too long to figure out that Alex has been cat-fished.

I pointed an accusing finger at the beautiful dark-haired man of my dreams. “That’s the guy who was in the profile photo. The one I basically bared my heart to. Not you. I don’t know who you are.”

So by now, I’m sure you all know who “you” is….Joe. Looks like Joe has some explaining to do, but Alex wasn’t about to hear it. Beyond mortified, she stormed out of Dive Bar out into a rainstorm with Joe running to catch up behind her. Joe just wanted to explain things to Alex, but she wasn’t about to tolerate listening to a liar. She’s dealt with liars in the past and wasn’t about to let another one take up anymore of her time. By the time Joe is able to corner her, he doesn’t win any points to get on Alex’s good side.

“Look, I’m sorry you feel let down. I know you’re after a pretty boy with all the smooth moves and that’s definitely not me, ” he continued. “You’re not exactly my type either, for that matter. No offense.”

Douchecanoe.

“But I still think you’re great and us being friends, it’s a good thing. We support each other Alex.”

Personally, I thought that this story was going to go downhill fast. What in the world would make Alex change her mind about Joe? Apparently the worst head cold imaginable. Stuck in the middle of northern Idaho with no way to travel back to Seattle, Alex has no other choice than to allow Joe help take care of her until she’s well enough to fly.

What commences over the next two weeks is pretty adorable. Joe is able to slowly pull Alex out of her shell. It’s quite sweet witnessing Joe build Alex’s confidence and them testing the waters between friendship and maybe something more. They both realize that they have a lot of things to work on. Alex needs to start saying ‘yes’ more to open herself up to new things, and Joe needs to say ‘no’ more to make himself a priority in his own life.

Things started to kind of lag for me, and I was toying with a much lower rating. There was just nit picky things that annoyed me. Alex’s reasoning about being lied to in the past for one was just not as developed as I was hoping for. But FINALLY, things started to heat up and the angst went full throttle!

I loved that when things started to get rough that Alex didn’t get fazed. She stuck through it. She would’ve never have done that in the past. She would’ve been the first one out the door. She wanted to show Joe that she’s changed because of him. What I love even more is that she didn’t do it just to prove it to him, but to prove it to herself. That was enough for me to finally bring my rating to a 4 star!

I was surprised to see the ending of this book completed not just Joe and Alex’s story, but of another couple, the couple that I was hoping would be the bases of this story. That makes it even more intriguing to see who’s going to be in Chaser. And I will definitely be signing up to find out who!

**ARC provided in exchange for an honest review

From New York Times bestselling author Kylie Scott comes the second sizzling stand-alone novel in the Dive Bar series!

When his younger brother loses interest in online dating, hot bearded bartender Joe Collins only intends to log into his account and shut it down. Until he reads about her.

Alex Parks is funny, fascinating, and pretty much everything he’s been looking for in a woman—except that she lives across the country. Soon they’re emailing up a storm and telling each other their deepest, darkest secrets…except the one that really matters.

When Alex pays Joe a surprise visit, however, they both discover that when it comes to love, it’s always better with a twist.

About Kylie Scott

Kylie is a long time fan of erotic love stories and B-grade horror films. She demands a happy ending and if blood and carnage occur along the way then all the better. Based in Queensland, Australia with her two children and one delightful husband, she reads, writes and never dithers around on the internet.

Kylie is represented by Amy Tannenbaum at the Jane Rotrosen Agency, New York.